The present invention relates to a new and improved ammunition feed apparatus or system for feeding cartridges from a drum-type or drum magazine to a firing weapon or system.
In its more particular aspects, the present invention relates specifically to a new and improved ammunition feed apparatus or system for feeding cartridges to a firing weapon or system from a drum-type or drum magazine subdivided into a predetermined number of sectors in each of which there is accommodated a row or series of cartridges. The feed apparatus or system comprises a first conveyor for pushing the cartridge rows or series one after the other out from the sectors or individual compartments of the drum-type magazine and a second conveyor for transporting the cartridges which have been pushed out from the sectors to the firing weapon.
In a feed apparatus or system of this kind as known, for example, from German Pat. No. 1,026,201, the first conveyor comprises a circulating endless chain which is provided with entraining or entrainment members and which is drivingly connected to the rotating drum-type magazine. The cartridges are transferred from the first conveyor to a second conveyor which is drivingly connected to the first conveyor and comprises a conveyor plate which, in turn, further feeds the cartridges to the weapon.
This known feed system is unfavorable in the event that the cartridges have to be removed from the drum-type or drum magazine either from the top or from a side thereof, because there then exists the danger of the cartridges dropping back into the empty sectors of the drum-type magazine. Furthermore, at high firing rates difficulties can occur in the transfer of the cartridges from the first conveyor to the second conveyor. In this known feed system there are furthermore required, particularly at high firing rates, high accelerating forces in order to suddenly accelerate an entire cartridge row or series from standstill. High acceleration forces are also required in order to accelerate the cartridges to a substantially higher feed rate during the transfer of the cartridges from the first conveyor to the second conveyor.